The Denver Nuggets have dominated the 2023 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat and can now secure their first championship title in franchise history in Monday’s Game 5.
The Heat have found no answers to Nikola Jokic and the former MVP looks set to dominate again. Bookmaker Bovada is offering odds at +115 for Denver to win with Jokic scoring at least 30 points. The odds are at +135 for a home win with Jokic finishing with a triple-double.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: June 11th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
Jokic has set a new NBA record with 10 triple-doubles in a single postseason and he’s averaging 30.8 points, 13.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists in the Finals. Miami has tried different strategies against him to disrupt Denver’s play, but Jokic has adjusted superbly against various defensive setups and he keeps the Nuggets ticking no matter what. Even an ankle sprain and foul trouble couldn’t slow him down in Game 4.
Denver also has Jamal Murray playing spectacular basketball. The Canadian star has become the first player in history to register 10-plus assists in each of his first four Finals appearances. In Game 4, he did it by not committing a single turnover across 43 minutes of action. The one-two punch of Jokic and Murray has caused Miami a lot of trouble, and the team is going to need something of a miracle to turn around the series, with only one side previously having come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals.
The Heat shocked the Nuggets with a 111-108 victory in Game 2, winning their first match in Denver since 2016, but Eric Spoelstra’s men have since then struggled to score consistently and the zone defense that worked incredibly well in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston has had very little effect on Denver’s offensive play.
In Game 5, Spoelstra will need to get a lot more out of his team and some players badly need to regain form. Bam Adebayo has posted back-to-back 20-point double-doubles, but he’s been shooting 37.5 percent from the field in the two games and must be much more efficient with his work on Monday.
Meanwhile, a “Playoff Jimmy” sighting would greatly boost Miami’s chances of survival as well. Jimmy Butler looked absolutely sublime at the start of the postseason, but his performance levels have dropped significantly over the last couple of weeks as he appears to be playing through some sort of injury or has simply run out of gas. Denver has limited Butler to just 21.8 points per game and he will likely have to contribute much more offensively in Game 5 for the Heat to take the series back to Miami.
